President Barack Obama publicly explained why he is sticking with his bulky Blackberry—the super-secure device is the only one he is allowed to carry.

At a meeting to promote the health care law at the White House on Wednesday, Obama told a group of young people, “I’m not allowed for security reasons to have an iPhone.” He added that daughters Sasha and Malea spend a lot of time on their iPhones.

Agence France-Presse reports that even though Blackberry has hemorrhaged market share to Apple and other tech firms, it’s still popular among officials in Washington because of its strong encryption. Around the time of his inauguration in 2009, Obama fought to keep his Blackberry; he has said he doesn’t want to be kept in the “White House bubble” where the majority of the president’s communications are filtered by staff and the media.

Obama also reportedly has a personal email address that’s limited to a small group of senior officials and close friends.

"Hey B, I just got the new app, Drone Wars 3 for my iPhone 5, I took out possible 3 terrorists, 400 women and children, and a herd of goats. I leveled up in just 3 missions. But who needs an app, when you got the real deal, huh?

Not surprised. While some private sector companies may have jumped on the BYOD bandwagon, or opted to allow iPhone devices as standard issue equipment in their environments, the vast majority have not. This is especially true in the defense industry. Sure, there are plenty of third-party solutions out there to "sand box" or lock down Apple devices, but those solutions also cripple the "cool" features that made the iPhone attractive to the end-user in the first place. Bottom line, they are consumer products, and next to impossible to manage in a large, Microsoft-centric, enterprise environment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Blackberry....just speaking from the perspective of someone in an environment with very tight controls over device and data access.

It is quite ironic- if not tragically so, that the lion's share of commentary on US politics is subversive to our Nation's strategic interests. You don't actually want the United States to thrive.

Moreover, the “paid
for” Tea Party protests often invoke “communist” or “socialist” memes when, in
fact, the “no new taxes, ever” + “cut ALL entitlements and Food Stamps” GOP is
far more similar to Stalin starving 3,000,000 Ukrainians in the 1930s.
Moreover, whereas the Tea Party-led GOP seems to delight in comparing the ACA
to some “despotic” mandate…they seem conspicuously incapable of even
acknowledging that the CBO determined the ACA SAVES THE TREASURY TRILLIONS over
the next 100+ years. It cannot be both. Either the GOP Congress’ course of
conduct is in furtherance of FISCAL PRUDENCE, or it is simply thwarting duly
Federal law with no Compelling or even Legitimate State Interest in mind.
Funny, even challenging the Tea Party supporters to rationalize these glaring
contradictions only invites judgmental and hateful responses. It is sadly just
another form of the selfsame, seditious “chaos” that the Tea Party seeks to sow
into the fabric of American society. I see no good in this.